


Game Night

by ciaconnaa



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-23
Updated: 2017-11-23
Packaged: 2019-02-05 20:44:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12802005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ciaconnaa/pseuds/ciaconnaa
Summary: For whatever stupid, crazy, practically cosmic reason, Steve Harrington agrees to be in charge of the neighborhood Gaggle of Geeks’ weekly game night. To say it's stressful is putting it lightly. On a scale from 1-10, his headache is a solid "skull bashed in with that baseball bat from hell"





	Game Night

For whatever stupid, crazy, practically  _ cosmic  _ reason, Steve Harrington agrees to be in charge of the neighborhood Gaggle of Geeks’ weekly game night.

There are a bunch of other things a teenager with hair as great as his could be doing on this Saturday night: drinking, partying, drinking  _ and  _ partying. Okay, so, technically, the little dweebs are a “party” in themselves (so they say) so he still gets to keep his cool credits, right?

Ah, screw it. The adults are out drinking the fun stuff, and he’s drinking a goddamn glass of milk. Jonathan Byers is out on a date with Nancy and he’s babysitting. Everyone else is doing something cool and Steve’s…..well, not as cool as he used to be, that’s for sure. Might as well be in the Upside Down But the nerds are happier than he’s ever been, so maybe there’s something to being uncool.

Steve has seen the boys and Maxine from time to time in the last few months, but this is the first time he’s really been in the room with Eleven for more than five minutes. Hopper learned he couldn’t keep her away from her friends and she’s apparently been allowed to go to the Wheeler's house for Saturday game night in their basement every week. But as he watches her watch the boys set up the board for Dungeons and Dragons, he can’t possibly imagine that’s she’s actually been playing with them. There's only so much nerd a person can learn, and so quickly at that.

“Hey, El,” Steve calls,  “Do you really like playing Dungeons and Dragons?”

“I don’t completely understand it yet,” she answers with a shrug. 

“Sooooo,” Steve drawls out, “That’s a no." He turns his attention to the boys. "Guys, really?”

Mike is the first to jump on the defense. “She’s learning! El is really smart, she’s picking up on it really fast.”

Steve scoffs. “Don’t give me that. It’s a complicated game for anyone to learn so how about just for tonight you pick something easier so she can actually play with you guys?”

“But-”

“Pick something easier.”

The boys collectively sigh and Steve feels just a bit smug. 

But then the _real_ argument begins.

“How about Candyland?” Will suggests, already rummaging through the board games tucked away someplace in a corner of the Wheeler basement. 

It’s a sound suggestion, but none of the boys plus Max particularly like the idea, but Eleven looks particularly intrigued. The word “candy” must have really sparked her interest.

“That’s  _ too  _ easy,” Lucas complains. “I play that with my sister and it’s so  _ boring.  _ Trust me El, you’d be bored playing that game. How about….” he trails off, scratching his head in thought. When he thinks of something, he snaps his fingers. “Risk!”

That suggestion seems to go over better, but Mike’s face is the first to sour. “No, that won’t work. There’s too many of us and I think it’d be too hard to play in teams with the number of people we have.”

“Scrabble?” Dustin offers, ping-ponging off their suggestions. Slowly but surely, the rest of the so called Party + Steve turn to give him an incredulous look.

“Scrabble?” Lucas berates. “Really dude?”

“What? What’s wrong with Scrabble?”

“A word game? No offense to El because it’s not her fault, but Mike’s baby sister could probably beat El in Scrabble.”

“Hey!”

“Oh, shut up Mike you know it’s true.”

“That doesn’t mean you have to--to point it out! You’ll make her feel bad.”

“He’s not making me feel bad.”

“I mean, really. She didn’t even know the word--”

“We get it! Scrabble is out.” Mike gives a frustrated sigh. “Too bad Battleship is a two person game, that would be a good one.”

“Not without alcohol,” Steve mumbles, but it’s not quiet enough that Eleven doesn’t pick it up.

“Alcohol?” she repeats and Lucas makes a wild gesture her way as if to illuminate his earlier Scrabble point; Max responds by smacking him upside the head.

“Nevermind,” Steve shakes his head, not wanting to explain the intricacies of alcohol and  _ drinking games  _ to a bunch of twelve year olds. Talk about worst babysitter of the year. “Why don’t you play Monopoly? She’d pick up on that pretty quickly.”

“Hmm,” Will hums thoughtfully, “I think it could work. It’d take, what, ten minutes to explain the rules?”

“No,” Lucas shakes his head. “No, no, no. We are  _ not _ playing Monopoly.”

“What? Why not?” Dustin asks.

“Dustin, you get  _ way  _ too competitive playing Monopoly.”

“That’s not true.”

“Last time you upset the entire board because Will got the last railroad space!”

“He’s right. You….you’re a different person when you play Monopoly, man.”

“It’s just business guys. You gotta risk it to get the biscuit. You gotta be bold and you gotta be daring. I play the battleship and I play to _win_.”

A short pause and then four annoying pubescent voices shout:

“I call battleship!”

Steve welcomes the sound of his hand slapping his own forehead in complete frustration.

“Dustin, no. You were the battleship last time.”

“Right!" He agrees, "And the time before that, and the time before that--”

“Exactly! You’ve had your time.”

“It’s my signature! I can’t just give it up. Be the horse or something.”

“I don’t want to be the horse or  _ something.  _ I want to be the battleship. Or maybe the car.”

“Yeah, be the car.”

“Wait, hold on, if I can’t be the battleship, then _I_ want to be the car.”

Steve sighs, grabbing one of the pillows from the fort, and shoves it in his face.

“Wait hold on. What about El? Shouldn’t she pick first?”

That, the boys can finally agree on. “Okay, yeah, “Lucas admits. “El can be the battleship,” he says, sounding like he’s giving up something a lot more important than dibs on a certain game piece.

Eleven leans over and plucks a piece out of the Monopoly box that Will regretfully seems to be setting up. “I want the dog.”

“Okay great! So that means I’m the battleship.”

“No! Look--”

“Enough,” Steve groans, his woes muffled in the pillow. After a few calming breaths he chucks it across the room, narrowly missing Max’s bright target-like red hair. “Here’s the deal. None of you are the battleship because  _ I’m  _ going to be the battleship.”

“Wait, you’re going to play?”

“You know what, yeah. Yeah, I’m going to play.”

“This wasn’t agreed upon.”

“Shut up. Look. I’m playing. I’m the battleship. Max is going to be the car.”

“What? Why?”

Max grins as she nabs said car from the box. “Because I’m the Zoomer.”

“Right. Because she’s the goddamn Zoomer,” Steve agrees even though he doesn’t know what that means. He settles on the floor in the circle someplace between Eleven and Dustin. “As for the rest of you dickheads, you get whatever I toss at you, got it?” He ends up tossing the wheelbarrow to Lucas, the canon to Will, the hat to Mike, and the thimble to Dustin.

“Aw man….I got the bucket,” Dustin mumbles.

“Dude, that’s a thimble.”

“A what?”

Eleven blinks. “Thimble. T-H-I-M-B-L-E. For sewing.”

“Huh,” Mike muses as their friends look at her equally stunned. “Maybe Scrabble isn’t such a bad idea after all.”

“So we  _ are  _ playing Scrabble?”

“No, we’re playing Monopoly.”

“I’d rather play Scrabble.”

“No Scrabble!” Steve nearly shouts. “Now, shut up while I explain the rules--”

“Ooh!" Will interrupts, upsetting the board with a jerk of his knee. "What if we played Sorry?”

As the argument takes off once more, Steve sighs and wonders if there's a game that involves bashing his own head in with that baseball bat full of nails.


End file.
